001Good evening. January, please mot Second favor of America andice for all. Thank you. Okay, for anybody who's not aware of the emergency exits, we got them right behind you and then right off the stage here. Um, we will start with the approval of the order and I need a motion, please. >> I need a second. >> Second. >> In favor? >> I Okay, m, can you do the clerk's report, please? >> Resolve that board of education accepts the minutes of the business meeting held December 9th, 2021. Uh, I need a motion, please. >> Motion. >> I need a second. >> Thank you. >> In favor? >> I. >> All right, we're going to start with our students of the month. Who wants to do it first? Mr. Meyer. >> Thank you, Mr. Sprayer. Happy New
002Year, everybody. I'd like to ask one of my outstanding faculty members come up and join. Mrs. Ber, come on up. and Bachelor and I are very very proud to introduce our December student of the month, Emma Stones. Emma, come on. Obviously, Emma is a sweet, friendly, and enthusiastic student. She arrives at school every day with a huge smile on her face and the ambition to tackle whatever awaits her at class. She is a peer leader and can often be found helping the other students in the classroom. Whether it be helping a friend clean up a spilled supply box or helping them with a project, her kindness shows in all that she does. Not only does she help her friends, but she always volunteers to help her teachers out as well. We can always count on
003Emma for a helping hand and to spread compassion and kindness throughout our school. When asked what her favorite part of school was, Emma smiled and shouted, "Learning." This could be seen daily. As Emma participates in our class, she's always asking why or how to deepen her understanding of whatever topics First grade is covering. She's a truly inquisitive girl. Her favorite subject is math, and it shows she knows all of her addition and subtraction facts and can do them in her head. She loves math stations and learning new topics. She was especially excited to learn about fact balance and how certain numbers relate to one another. Emmer's favorite special is physical education because, as she says, she loves to run around. Her favorite day of the week is fun Friday. Who's it? Who's a friend? Uh
004because she loves to play CBC Word Splash in Literacy Groups. When Emma grows up, she wants to be a ballet teacher. She loves dancing and takes both ballet and hiphop dance classes outside of school. When she's not dancing, Emma can be found swimming in her pool is one of her favorite activities. Not tonight, though, right? Emma has an amazing creative spirit. She loves the color pink and her favorite animal is a unicorn. We consider it a privilege to have Emma in our first grade this year. She has already become such an intricral part of our school and we wouldn't be the same without her. We can't wait to watch her grow this year and the rest of her years at Hampton Bay. Emma is destined to do great things. We're proud to have nominated Emma,
005this amazing, complete wonderful girl to be a December student of month. Emma, we are so proud of you. Keep shining bright. Congratulations. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Sh. Welcome. >> Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Ser. Allow me to introduce December's HBS student of the month, fifth grader, Kellen Da Mass. How did I do? >> I got it right. >> He's in shorts. I can't >> It has been a pleasure having Kellen as a new fifth grader this school year. I'll begin by sharing the words of those who know him best at HBMS, his fifth grade teachers, team inspiration who nominated him. Here's what they had to say. Kellen consistently demonstrates creativity, kindness, and respect in everything he does. He is a positive role model for his classmates, always polite, and supportive of others. Kellen excels in
006art, showing impressive skill and an exceptional attention to detail. His positive attitude and strong work ethic make him truly deserving of this recognition. Kellen is an extremely conscientious and respectful student to all his teachers as well. He follows directions and class procedures well while also participating enthusiastically in class activities and discussions. He had a wide range has a wide range of interests that are seen in his library book choices. He might check out a non-fiction book about baseball legends by Rubbero Fermente. Or he might delight in learning new recipes and their cultural significance in one of many cookbooks he has checked out this year. Either way, it is clear he is truly looking for something he is interested in and learning more about. True statement. True statement. Oh, by the way, this is got that
007part. I told him it's one job. Come up and hold the plaque. Okay. Now, during our interview, Kellen described himself as a big math guy. His favorite topic to learn about so far has been conversions. For example, 72 in equals 60. Didn't didn't tell him I was He is such a big math guy that he has joined our math masters team, which meets before school starting at 7 a.m. Kellen is also a proud scholar athlete. In fact, he's a flagged football quarterback and wide receiver, a basketball point guard and shooting guard, and a baseball shortstop. While basketball season has been great, he, like many of us, eagerly awaits the start of spring training and baseball season. It was impressive hearing Kellan say that what he likes about school sports through our PE classes is that
008his concentration seems to improve for the rest of the day after a good workout. Kell also enjoys art with Mr. Gabriardi. His favorite unit so far being an awesome interdisiplinary unit where he learned to draw and illustrate insects. He especially enjoyed learning the blended techniques of pen and watercolors. When not at school, Kellen enjoyed spending time with his family and their golden retriever Maisie leopard gecko Dexter and his little sister's goldfish small fry. While it is he is very eager to talk uh it is very early to talk about life after middle school and high school. Kell has his eye on Notre Dame. He mentioned the movie Rudy in college. He is eager to study sports, business or some combination of the two. But he is not limiting his search because he's 11 years old.
009That said, we cannot wait to see his Naviance results which HBMS begins to collect in sixth grade. It might come as no surprise to us at this point that Kellen is a reader who enjoys reading books, especially biographies about athletes, which was mentioned by his teachers. The one he mentioned to me as a fellow Yankee fan is one I'll be adding to my February reading list about the iron horse Garrick. Lastly, Kell's words of wisdom on how to succeed at HBMS is get organized, learn how to plan, get things like homework done as early as possible, and focus on learning. I can talk about this kid all day long. We almost talked all day long today. It was a wonderful conversation that I didn't want to end. Congratulations, Kellen and Mr. Rashard and Mr. Morgan.
010Watch out because this kid's a rising fifth grade star, but he already has his eye about on the uh student of the month in high school. So, get ready. Congratulations. How are you, sir? Uh, I didn't know that uh it was math night for the students of the month. Uh, but ironically, I'm bringing uh a math rockstar to the stage right now. Um, I'd like to introduce uh Dennis Williams, the high school student of the month of December. So, uh, Dennis was nominated by the math department unanimously and, uh, he had asked me like, "Hey, which teacher recommended me?" And I said, "Well, it was all of them." Um, and the reason why is he's one of the very few seniors despite not looking to major in math later on that thought it would be
011a great idea to take AP Statistics and AP Calculus A in the same year. Um so um that that surprised me quite a bit. Uh but what didn't surprise me uh was that all of his teachers had the same thing to say that uh he's an incredibly diligent student that he is a brilliant young man um with unlimited potential and that much is is very clear. Um so turns out Dennis is also a pretty good test taker. Uh we racked up a couple of fives on AP literature and AP biology. He's a member of the national honor society, the science and the math national honor societies. Uh he was the uh chief of human resources for our virtual enterprise team last year um as they were looking to sell our shadow flex product. Uh I
012got to learn a lot about that from Dennis although I heard a bit last year but I got a little bit more of an in-depth explanation as to that. Um, that actually makes a lot more sense to me because Dennis's passion is business and what he's looking to do. He's major in business in college. Um, and it might take some interesting twists and turns. Uh, you know, there may be a management minor in there. He's got a passion for the culinary arts, so that may find its way into his college exploration. We're not quite sure. Um, Dennis is also a peer educator, uh, and he's really a well-rounded young man who continues to impress us each and every day. Uh thus far we've got some choices out in front of us, right? We are accepted
013to Johnson and Wales, Juniata, Manmouth, Hastra, and Clark. We still waiting on a few others. Um but I spoke to a very happy mom today here. He's racking up some of those financial aid uh or those financial award dollars uh because I imagine a lot of colleges would be really excited to have this year again. So uh Dennis, keep up uh great work and congratulations. Congratulations. Uh it is um my pleasure to uh present um one of our social workers, Myra Zavala as a candidate for tenency. Myra, don't you come on down. For those of you that work in the field of education, uh you would know that Myra's job is exceptionally difficult. Um and sometimes you're helping kids with things that uh um can be really really challenging to listen to. Um and to
014keep that forward motion, you know, h how do I how do I help this kid? How do I help this situation? Um and some of them are really really tough. And uh Myra is an unbelievable expert at this. She's um she's super bright. uh she's focused on kids, she's compassionate, she does everything right, and um I could not be more proud of the work uh that we do together every day. Um so Myra uh since she joined our team four years ago, has literally taken on every role you can ask someone to do in a high school. Um she's our No Place for Hate coordinator and uh for the last four years now, uh we've been designated as No Place for Hate School. Uh Meyer has taken teams of students into the city to be
015part of the uh the flag ceremony. Um that is uh recognition of some of the academic work that we do. She designs some of our double laser hit activities which students engage in an advisory. She's an adviser in our alternative school program. She co-ees um with a number of her colleagues including Miss Toy on the My Story project. Um and I know many of you have heard about that where kids are sharing um their incredible journeys uh of coming here to Hampton Bays uh from literally all over the world and the my story team has also been all over the country to share some of those experiences and Myra has been there to help. She coordinates our vape of education uh program. Uh she attend and chaper owns numerous hugs weekends which is also an
016enormous responsibility but something really really special for kids um giving up her weekends for those. Um, so many opportunities for giving to kids. The, uh, the Christmas giving tree and our prom dress shopping events, working with Katie's closet and our food pantry. Uh, kids literally are going home and they're eating because of the work that Fiverr does. Um, countless leadership conferences that she's taking kids to. Um, and, uh, she's the adviser for our striving for wellness uh, club. and there's a safe place for every kid in the building because of Myra and the incredible work that she does. Uh I could go on and on. Uh she's um she's just a huge member of the high school team, a huge asset to the Anony's community, and I could not be more proud to recommend her
017for tenure. Okay, we're going to take a quick five minute break if anybody wants to take any pictures and whatnot and then we will get back to the business section. All right. Is everybody ready for the riveting section of the business meeting? >> With everybody's sarcasmally noted, um, But what's on the screen there and in your packets, members, is um enrollment as it stands today. Um enrollment in the district is down three from December. Uh kindergarten registration begins in the next week or so with appointments being made for the class of 2039. >> Can you believe that? >> Will you still be teaching, Mrs. Stan? >> No. Um this is typically where we would see uh the end of January, beginning of February, typically where we would see um maybe a wave of new entrance
018into our community. Um this year, new entrance during the year has been low. And so that's why we're not seeing this number fluctuate uh but rather go in a in a pretty downward pattern. Um, a lot of that has to do with action at the federal government and the state of current events in in the world. Um, and so because it is a tumultuous time, I'm not ready to mail it in and say this is where we're headed, but this is where we are right now, if that's fair. So, you can see enrollment as it sits. At 2006 today, we received the um New York State uh the governor's initial proposal for um the budget. Um it comes over the fax machines still if you can believe that. Um but we did get a link
019to that too, but we also got facts. Um the initial budget is the opening salow to the to the legislative session uh which began last week with the governor's state of the state address. um and swearing in of assembly at the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate. Um the state aid runs for school between health care and education that comprises about 60% of the entire New York state budget. Um the governor's proposal except for the years of COVID when the money was basically the money and there was an infusion of federal funds to support our time during the epidemic. Um the governor's proposal is usually the starting bill. It doesn't go below that. There's not much more you can go below if you see at a 1% increase. So more than
020half of the school districts across New York State are on what's called the foundation formula and uh 100% of the districts are on the foundation formula. Excuse me. About 60% of them have fallen off the formula. meaning that because of demographic changes in those districts, the formula would generate for the school next year less than it got this year. And so when you're off the formula, New York State's proposal has been to do what's called save harmless. Save harmless means you will be saved and you will be harmless. You will not be harmed in the foundation aid formula's generation of less state aid. So two years ago, the initial governor's initial proposal was anybody who was a safe harmless district was going to get uh going to get what the formula generated which was a
021negative number for at that time probably 35 to 45% of the districts. Last year it was proposed that there would be um save harmless districts would be flat funding. It ended up being increased from there. This year, the governor has begun by seeing, you can see in the top right corner of that slide, a 1% increase. So, we are now a safe harmless district. Meaning, if the formula ran the way it is intended to run, we would get less money um in state aid as opposed to getting $129,000 in the first proposal. So with nearly twothirds of the districts in New York State being on whole safe harm list, the formula is only working for 40% of the districts, two a third of the districts, 40% of the districts in New York State. So the
022recommendations from the Rockefeller Center are still valid to update that foundation aid formula. So it really does work for everybody. as we move into budget development and it's not a surprise to Larry and that's not why he's not here. He's committed to he's committed to calling bingo at the Hampton Bay Lions at the American Legion. But uh what what hasn't been surprising to Larry is that we were going to be in this situation coming in and um we've navigated for years with foundation catchup um where we had 20% increase, 25% increase, 30% increase um that we uh really didn't uh we we had a strong 3 to five sixyear uh financial outlook and we didn't go buy a bunch of new cars, Right. Um we were careful and we expected that this day was going
023to come. This stays here. It's 1% increase at this point. Um if a 2% tax levy um generates about a million $1.2 million increase in the tax levy plus $200,000 here, we're looking at a $1.4 million budget increase. As Larry has been baking in the components of the budget that we already know are expenses next year, we're over three million at this point in increase. So, we are entering this budget season um with very sharp pencils, um scalpels you might call them, uh because we're in a position where we're going to have to look at every line, every expense, every maintenance project, every um every dollar that we're going to spend because um on Long Island, traditionally a pierced budget, and this has been the goal of the board of education since the cap was
024in in invented in 2012 to stay within the budget. Um, school districts are traditionally not successful when they attempt to pierce the budget. And so, uh, pierce the tax cap. So, this is where we begin. I'm not going to say more or say it emotionally because the budget process is long and, uh, we get to a budget proposal um, at the um, after spring break in April. So, a lot more to work on. Our buildings are working diligently with the departments on how many pencils and what books and what field trips and what uh programming we want to bring in for next year. And our leadership team uh does a really great job with a monle uh looking at looking at the budgets and looking at every place we can find efficiencies. And so we'll
025be doing that as well as participating in a number of different advocacy events with the New York State Education Department. uh working directly with our elected officials um in Albany who represent us in Suffach County. Um the Longwood legislative breakfast is coming on Saturday, February 3rd. Is it what it's February 7th? Excuse me. Right before the Super Bowl. Uh and so that that's an opportunity to connect with our elected officials. They are going to be critically important in uh making that basic minimum increase of 1% be something more than 1% and hopefully a lot more than 1% than a lot less more than 1%. We'll also vote uh you'll also vote, excuse me, on the 2026 27 calendar uh approval tonight. We normally do it in February, but it's ready to go. Um early uh
026I'm sorry, a late Labor Day means a late start to the school year for students. I know that summer planning is important for uh I'm looking at Mr. Foster for athletics and and when the seasons begin um we'll have two professional development days on uh before Labor Day and then kids will come back right after um Labor Day. I want to recognize uh two uh resolutions tonight. Uh Mr. Pagano and Mrs. Lynn, who is not here tonight. We're not going to celebrate you tonight because you might get it in your head that it's all over already. Uh but there's still a lot more work to do. So, uh Mr. Pagano's uh resignation for the purposes of retirement is on the agenda. We congratulate you. We're jealous. We congratulate you. But we'll celebrate you just okay.
027Um congrats to Myra and her family certainly. And then um I'll just add that um on behalf of the board of education in the school district, I added my name along with uh all of my colleagues on the South Fork um from East Maritches to Montalk um a letter to the MTA for increased capital funding for the South Fork Malk line on the Long Island Railroad. If you drive down good ground road, you notice um how congested it is with cars. Um and it is a wellused line. Unfortunately, we don't have the right side or the sufficient sidings uh for those of you who played with trains as a kid. The you know, one train on one track. And so when it goes like this back and forth from from Montalk, only one can go.
028And so um the capital improvements would create additional sightings and upgrades to train stations, which would get more cars off the road. We see that uh critically here because it's where everybody converges whether they're coming over Punkwalk Bridge or from Sunrise Highway or from Montalk Highway or Route 24. So um as I have shared our perspective in Hampton Bay is that public transportation is public safety. We see right on Wakeman Road here. If you look out um on Wakeman Road, it is a public safety concern. You have distracted and stressed drivers who are are weaving their way every which way they can down side roads to get out east, further east, and they're stressed, right? When you're late, you're stressed. When you're stressed, you're a distracted driver. School is starting for kids. Kids are walking.
029Kids are trying to get here. So, public transportation is public transit is public safety for us in Hampton Bay. It's efficiency. It's mental wellness for for those heading east, but for us in Hampton Bay, it's public safety. So, we'll continue to advocate for that. Um, that is it that I have for my report tonight. I'm happy to take any questions. >> Okay. I also I'm sorry. Um, you know, I'm not done when I say um I do want to just recognize members and thank you all. Um, we're accepting the d your donation tonight. You each sponsored a graduate with a cap and a gown. Um, and we're accepting that tonight and those caps and gowns have been ordered and are um in the process of arriving. So, thank you for that. Members, >> happy new
030year. >> Last day you can say it according to Miss Cole. >> All right. Uh, with that said, we're going to do a consent agenda from 4 A to 7 C except for 6A. I need a motion. >> I need a second. >> All in favor? >> I passes. Okay. Um, for tenure or upon the re recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education may grant tenure in accordance with chapter one of the board of regents of the New York State Education Law to those candidates eligible and whereas the board of education is in accordance with such recommendation. Therefore, be it resolved that the following individuals be granted tenure in the special subject tenure area indicated which is Myra Zala uh social worker effective 228 96 uh 2696. >> Um I need a
031motion. >> Motion. >> Uh I need a second. >> Second. >> Okay. Um, dot a or nay? >> A >> bridge. >> I or nay. I >> I and I vote I also uh with that motion passes and with that we will also um Okay. Uh last is public comment. Persons may address the board of education on matters of interest or concern in accordance with the applicable state and federal law and board of education policy 1230 governing the rules of public comment and board meetings. Board of President will recognize all speakers. Please identify yourself, your town, and the topic on which you will be speaking. Time limits may be imposed based upon agend. So with that, I need a motion to close the meeting. I need a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >>
032I motion pass. Thank you all safely.